Future of John Smith's Bookshop at Royal Holloway

Posted on 04/02/2014

John Smith’s and Sons, the full-time independent bookshop located on campus in Founder’s West, will close on Tuesday 11 February.

It is a difficult and disappointing decision to close any shop, but campus bookselling has suffered a very significant decline in sales over recent years, and the impact of aggressive online competition and new approaches to teaching and learning has meant that fewer than half of UK universities now have a full time campus bookshop. John Smith’s and Royal Holloway have been working very hard to keep the bookshop open, but unfortunately the level of business simply wasn’t enough to support a commercial operation.

John Smith’s dedicated online bookshop for Royal Holloway staff and students will remain open at www.johnsmith.co.uk/rhul, and John Smith’s manager on campus, Martin Marshall, is staying with the company and will continue to be available to discuss providing books directly to staff and departments if needed. Martin can be contacted at martin.marshall AT johnsmith.co.uk.

We’re continuing to work with John Smith’s, and we hope to have more news about our future co-operation soon.

I know the bookshop staff are very thankful for your patronage and support, and we wish them the best for the future.